Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 33 - In And Out

Jaffar was standing in the hallway of the Shroom Pact dorm. He was just around the corner of Cid's apartment. He was peeking around the edge, watching as Alan and Sere knocked on the door. There was no reaction for a while and he was about to come out of hiding and meetup with his friends, until the door suddenly opened.

Somebody had come out of the apartment, which Jafar thought was likely Cid's roommate, and started having a conversation with his friends. He couldn't tell what they were talking about from where he was hiding. Eventually, it looked like they were invited inside.

Once the door was closed, Jafar waited a full minute before he gingerly walked around the corner and quietly approached. He placed his ear against the apartment door and tried to listen in to make sure there wasn't anyone standing beyond. He couldn't hear anybody, so he gently pushed it open. As he did that, the latch on the door pushed out with an audible clicking sound and flung out a plastic card that was wedged in it.

Jafar froze. He waited with bated breath for any response to the noise that was made, but none came. He thought he was safe and continued to enter the apartment.

As quietly as possible, he closed the door behind him and then picked up the plastic card that fell out when he opened it. He saw it was Alan's student ID and pocketed it.

Looking in front of him was a narrow hallway. At the end of it were three doors and on the right side before them was an opening to another room, where he could hear voices coming from. He quietly walked to the edge of the opening.

Now closer, Jafar could tell the voices belonged to his friends. He carefully looked around the corner and saw his friends and someone else sitting around a table in a kitchen area. He couldn't see the person's face, only the back of his head, as he was facing towards Sere. For a brief moment, both Sere and his eyes met before she almost immediately looked away from him. Likely worried that the roommate would notice her staring at Jafar.

Jafar quickly moved past the kitchen and down the hallway.Managing to do so without being noticed. Nearly every step he took was almost completely silent. The spell that Alan had casted on him made him lighter, thus also made his footstep quieter.

Arriving at the end of the hallway, and seemingly undetected, he proceeded to slowly open one of the doors. The first door he opened led to a simple bathroom with a toilet and shower. There was nothing of interest, so Jafar moved on. The next room was a proper bedroom of a university student. There was a bed, desk to work at, a string instrument of some kind in the corner, a book shelf that had no books in it, and a bunch of trash and dirty clothing all over the place.

There wasn't any distinguishing feature that could identify if this bedroom was Cid's, or his roommate. Jafar decided to look at the other bedroom before he started his search.

Upon opening the third door, he was met with a similar looking bedroom. It was darker in this room, but it had all the same furniture, minus the instrument. It was clean and didn't have trash all over like the other, but there was one glaring feature that made it stand out, the walls were completely covered with written notes and photos.